Dark Matters

As I write this the space shuttle Endeavor is on its last mission. It is being used to haul 14,000 pounds of gear to the International Space Station. Along with that load of stuff is an interesting contraption called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. This super science, 2 billion dollar project, is designed to detect evidence for the origins of the universe, particularly for the existence of what scientists are calling Dark Matter.

Can Science Answer Questions of Origins?

This whole question of the search for the origins of the universe has captured my attention for a long time. For decades the so-called scientific community has been publishing articles relating to the beginning of all things. I say ‘publishing articles’ because it seems like this has been the chief line of effort with virtually no actual scientific research available to corroborate all the fancy theories. The collection of evidence has always been a problem for these ‘researchers’ since they were not there at the beginning and have no way to observe, measure, or record any origins events. This leaves only speculation and hypotheses neither of which is science.

Now, scientifically-minded people can make hypotheses that they deem plausible, but deeming something plausible hardly makes it a fruit of the scientific method. Without observation, recording, and measurement the speculations being pushed forward are more philosophical or religious than they are scientific. This interests me because the secular scientific community regularly excoriates the Christians for believing in a God of Genesis with no scientific evidence to back up those beliefs.

Christians & Athiests Both Believe in the Unseen

As I read about dark matter I found that it is essentially undetectable. At least it is undetectable by means of emitted or scattered electromagnetic radiation, it is cold, it is “utterly transparent”, and likely is found in black holes which are by definition places where nothing can be observed. So, the only way to find evidence for dark matter is by inferring its existence based on its supposed secondary effects on other things. Stay with me now – you see, it is at this very point that atheistically-minded men scorn the Christians for making similar assertions about our religion and our God. We assert that our God has left evidence of His existence as Paul writes, ‘For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…’. So the scientific world ridicules us for believing in God based on secondary effects. Yet their present and most prized theory of beginnings is all based on philosophical theories and secondary evidence/ effects. Yes, our God is invisible, immeasurable, and undetectable in any direct way – just like their dark matter. Why then do non-Christian believers in unobservable dark matter laugh at Christians who believe in an unobservable Creator? Given that we both believe in an unseen beginning, by nature without means to measure or test, how are they so much wiser?

Theories of Beginnings are a Matter of the Heart

I am asserting here that the heart of the issue is in fact the heart, which is ‘desperately wicked’ according to Jeremiah. We do not suffer from a science problem but from a heart defect that pushes us to believe that the world of science has something up on the realm of religion. It does not. As Biblically-minded men we not only have secondary evidences for the existence of our God but we have His written word marked by evidence of miracles and unmatchable power. The ways of our God may be unfathomable but His existence is not a dark matter. His special revelation stands above the world of science as the eternally truthful Word. I do not know if dark matter exists but I am certain that it is a weak and poor descriptor as the explanation for our beginnings. The unredeemed world may chase its dark matter for answers but we have the Spirit of God.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach  5-21-11